On Earth as it is in Heaven?

Many may interpret that in the Lord’s Prayer, we are expressing the hope that god’s kingdom come and will be done on earth as it is in heaven… one day.  According to some Christian doctrine, here on earth we have split from God’s will, have acted against it, and as a result we experience pain, sadness and death.  The hardness of our lives is because we disobey.  We work to redeem ourselves by asking for forgiveness (penitence), and doing what we think God would have us do (restitution).  ‘Maybe this way, I can get into heaven,’ we think.

The Course in Miracles, on the other hand, teaches us that the world we see is an illusion, a projection of our ego, and an effect of our fearful thinking.  According to the Course, the world as we perceive it is not at all real, and the truth is that we are (right now) in heaven, that we always have been, and that we just need to wake up to this truth to experience heaven’s joy and peace.  According to this teaching, there is no will but God’s and our belief that we have sinned, that we even have the ability to act out of line with God’s will, is delusional.  Everything we have ever done, “good” or “bad,” was a part of the plan.

But if it’s true that we have never sinned, and that everything we have ever done was a part of the plan-  and if it’s true that this world we see is not real-  then what’s the point of doing anything at all?  ‘My cancer’s not real, so why should I treat it?’  ‘This war is not real, so why advocate for peace?’  ‘This poverty’s not real, so why should I donate?’  ‘My sin is a part of the plan, so why should I change?’

The answer is that until we are all, every one of us, fully awake from the dream, completely free of our ego, and entirely rid of our fears, we are all, to one extent or another, subject to the painful effects of our limited perception.  More importantly, of crucial importance, is that any awakening we experience from the illusion of our pain is attained through the forgiveness or loving-kindness of those who help us.  We do not find the truth alone, which means that so long as one person retains one iota of attachment to the world of our physical senses, we still have work to do to experience heaven.  We must meet our physical needs and those of others as long as any one maintains a belief in our physical bodies.  We must amend for our harms so long as any one believes we can be harmed.  We atone, for our belief and our fear are one.  And through these acts, we come to know the peace of heaven, not one day when we die, but right now.

So the Course, in its teaching that we never sinned, that we cannot act against God’s will, and that we are already in heaven but just don’t know it, actually empowers us to be more responsible for one another, for it asserts that we cannot experience heaven separately (without our brothers and sisters).  We do not learn (or unlearn) anything alone.  God will not allow any one of us to be left behind in a hell of fear or pain, for there is only one of us.  So when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we no longer wish for, but rather we assert, that God’s kingdom is come, will is already done, on earth as it is in heaven.  And then we go and share this joyful news, by which we find our purpose.